I re-read my post, Getting Your Mojo Back, recently and realised that despite not including a lot of detail it was a subject that provoked the kind of reaction that I like to see. In retrospect, I do not think that I withheld anything consciously, I just wanted to write a short positive post that explained why I had not done anything lately. Thinking about it now, there are some mental health issues involved when someone who is naturally creative stops being that very thing. I am not an expert on this subject, I am not even a big fan of psychology, but it makes logical sense to me.

The past two years have been characterised by fear and oppression, not just for me but for most of the world too. It has seeped into almost every part of our lives and what was once considered normal appears to have gone forever. The new ‘normal’ is not a positive experience. Freedom of movement and socialisation has been lost. I thought that, as a disabled person who is used to being more of a spectator than a participant in life, I had coped with the situation better than most. Probably, I did. The worst that happened to me was losing any creative impulse, but I know that other people have suffered far worse. I became listless but not depressed. I still had my disability to deal with, but there are other people out there, one or two who I know personally, who had life threatening conditions to cope with as well. There is no hierarchy of suffering. If you are in pain, whether mental or physical or both, then you are in pain. Seek help. Sometimes, this will be found in the health care services, sometimes, in a conversation with a good friend or even a total stranger, and sometimes it will be there in doing an activity that you really enjoy but that you have not, for whatever reason, done for a while.

I got my mojo back, but I do wonder what might have happened if I had not? Would I have been able to take my own advice? I am used to asking for help with physical problems due to my disability, I am not so sure that I would be so willing to do so for mental health problems. I suppose it is something that can only be known by experiencing a problem that can only be solved by seeking help and, in that respect, I have been fortunate. It is worth remembering that other people have been in a similar place and either have not or are not so lucky.